There is a show on public radio called "This American Life". It is aired here on Sunday afternoons around 3 or 4 I believe. What this show does is take stories that are "uniquely American" and tell them. Despite it's expected public radio liberal spin, it is an absolutely incredible show that I would suggest listening to.
On Emily's last visit she re-introduced Pam and I to her parent's Netflix account. We hadn't watched anything on it for ages, but now we've watched quite a few streaming movies when the kids go to bed. First, I want to say thanks to the Langs. Yay. Second I want to tell you about something Pam and I stumbled upon. You are able to watch "This American Life" on Netflix. I had heard that they had made it into a TV show on Showtime, but I'd never seen it. Now Pam and I have watched almost every episode. It is fascinating.
Tonight Pam and I watched one called John Smith. They decided that they wanted to follow one person's life from birth to death, but they didn't want to have to follow one person around for 80 years for obvious reasons. So they instead followed 7 different people around, all named John Smith, and all at different stages of life. One of the most interesting things is that they didn't know each other. They had a baby, an 8 year old, a 23 year old, a 36 year old, a 46 year old, a 70 year old, and a 79 year old. They put the show together in a way that kept them all separate people but looked like one life. I can't really explain it any better than that, but I can say that it was the single most ingenious bit of TV that I've probably ever seen. It was utterly engaging. It captured such a normal life, yet 7 ways unique. Toward the end the parents of the newborn are talking about the things that they wish for their baby and as they are talking about their hopes for John, they show how the other 6 Johns have lived it out. You have to see it. It apparently won a ton of awards too.
For those of you who have access to a Netflix account look up "This American Life: Season 2: John Smith" and watch it. It is 1 hour. Make sure you have some time.
For those of you who don't pay the $3 for it on iTunes and download it HERE.
You really should see this show.
John Smith
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Joel Rohde
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3 comments :
I always thought the John Smith Disney character was the sexiest. Plus, Mel Gibson is his voice. Whoo whoo!
Remember when Emily thought Doug Doughan was John Smith? Funny!
Joel - now I'm anxious to go on and watch - this sounds fascinating, and maybe like something I could use in Sociology. What do you think?
I'm not sure how you would fit this particular episode into sociology, but there season 1 is full of episodes that could be used for sociology. Everything from people that try to photograph God, to an "improv everywhere" experiment gone awry.
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